Automakers are starting to produce vehicles with 48-volt power systems, and this technology is expected to catch on rapidly. Austria-based ams, which manufactures a wide range of sensors and analog ICs, has introduced a reference board for a small and simple 48 V battery monitoring system.

The new board provides a complete monitoring and safety system on a single, compact PCB. It measures the flow of current through the battery, and the voltage and temperature both of the entire battery and of individual cells. It is suitable both for single 48 V battery systems, and in dual 48 V / 12 V systems.

The ams board performs cell balancing in hardware, without the need for a microcontroller or processor. According to ams, this makes it quick and easy to implement in a vehicle’s power management system, and makes it easier for system designers to comply with the ISO 26262 functional safety standard, because it eliminates the need for complex algorithms for error compensation and cell balancing.

“The new battery monitoring reference board from ams shows that 48 V power systems in vehicles do not have to be complex or difficult to implement,” said Marketing Manager Sabine Jud. “The high performance of the ams board is due to the precision and accuracy of its analog components and on-board 48 V precision attenuator. This means that it can do without the complex error compensation software and high-end microcontroller required by other 48 V battery monitoring systems

Source: ams